When Maeling Tapp made her first YouTube video a few years ago, she was nervous. Would anyone watch? Would everyone wonder why she felt the need to share the journey of her transition from chemically processed hair to hair in its natural state? Would anyone care?
As it turns out “going natural” — a term that has come to describe the decision and process of many African-American women to stop chemically processing their textured hair — proved to be a hot topic among the myriad beauty tips offered online. Today Tapp, of Buckhead, leads the pack of more than a dozen Atlanta area video bloggers who have styled their way to online stardom.
“I didn’t know the proper way to care for my hair,” said Tapp, 25, a doctoral candidate at Georgia Tech studying material science and engineering, who boasts almost 6 million views as Natural Chica on her YouTube channel.
When she backslid on her first try at going natural, friends pointed her to online natural hair gurus for product information, styling techniques and support.
“That motivated me,” Tapp said. “I wanted to be able to encourage someone else on her journey.”
According to data from YouTube, Atlanta is the No. 1 city nationally for viewers showing search interest in natural hair. And it is home to more than a dozen video bloggers who garner more than 10 million cumulative views for their videos.
“They’re attracting viewers from across the state, the U.S. and all over the world,” YouTube spokeswoman Jessica Mason said.
Candace Anderson made two previous attempts at going natural but failed. It wasn’t until she found Tapp’s step-by-step tutorials for turning the curls, coils and kinks characteristic of Afro-textured hair into wearable, easy-to-create styles that Anderson stuck with it.
“I loved the way she explained the process,” said Anderson, 37, of Midtown, about one of Tapp’s videos on two-strand twisting, a method of styling hair that creates a free-flowing, yet controlled, style. “It is refreshing to know there is an abundance of resources out there for natural sisters like me.”
Like Tapp, most of the YouTube video bloggers are not hair stylists by trade. They are women who made the decision to document their hair ups and downs in the hopes of helping others. Along the way, many of them have found lucrative side careers. Tapp says the money she receives as a YouTube partner, along with the advertising on her blog, helped her buy a new car.
Alexis Felder, aka Lexi With the Curls, has spun off in an entirely new direction as an event planner. Felder, 27, of Atlanta, started making YouTube videos in 2008 because she couldn’t find any help managing her super-thick hair texture. She decided to film herself testing the new products her mother would send. “It was just something fun,” said Felder, who works in digital marketing. “I wasn’t afraid to post a video [of a style] that may have failed,” she said.
Though she says her blog is more active than her YouTube channel, Felder’s videos have more than 1.6 million total views, making her a standout among Atlanta-based video bloggers.
In 2009, she began organizing beauty, style and fashion events for natural hair bloggers and their followers.
A recent event attracted more than 500 attendees. Her events have become successful ventures that, along with the ads and sponsored posts on her blog, have given her a healthy side income, but Felder, who is frequently recognized by fans, most enjoys the idea that she is helping others.
“It makes me feel like I’m doing something that people like,” Felder said. “People are relying on YouTube much more than they did back in the day. Everybody wants to be do-it-yourself, and YouTube helps with that.”
Though relatively late to the game, Kiki Stephens, 36, of Conyers, found success on YouTube as half of Mahogany Knots. Stephens went natural 12 years ago, and her then co-worker and friend, Sarrah Riley, 34, of Decatur, came to her for advice. They shared tips with each other for years before realizing they could share them with the world.
“I thought YouTube was for people who wanted to dance and sing until Sarrah forwarded a video of someone doing hair,” Stephens said. Soon after, in fall of 2009, Stephens, a home-based corporate trainer and mother of three, turned a camera on herself.
“I just put it out there,” Stephens said. She wasn’t afraid to talk about products that didn’t work, but she mostly stuck to showing viewers how to create the hairstyles she dreamed up at night. With more than 1 million total views, Stephens also managed to attract a different demographic than some of her fellow video bloggers — women in the 34 to 49 set, like Rhonda McKnight, 45, of Stockbridge, who were just starting to go natural and were seeking style advice.
“I get encouragement. I get excited. I get great ideas,” said McKnight, an author of women’s fiction. “When I see [the video bloggers], I see the natural beauty that is myself and my sisters the way God intended us to look.”
Atlanta’s natural hair gurus on YouTube
• Maeling Tapp, Natural Chica (NikkiMae2003)
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